


our bond won't deepen quite yet

by hirokiyuu



Series: one more time, with feeling [2]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen, Interquel, M/M, Persona 5 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2019-09-04 23:43:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16799389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hirokiyuu/pseuds/hirokiyuu
Summary: [perhaps even friends bonus content]ch1: The Phantom Thieves discuss their newest acquaintance. Takamaki Ann holds a cat. [post chapter 6]ch2: Fate, left to chance. Akechi Goro has a pillow fight. [april fools, post chapter 8]





	1. stick together and see it through

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eternal love to alm and apple for beta'ing and spell checking!
> 
> chapter title from toy story's you've got a friend in me!

“Okay, so was it just me, or was that guy super weird?”

Ann still wasn't really used to holding Mona, so he got a little jostled when she reached out to give Ryuji a smack on the shoulder. “Keep your voice down!” she whisper-shouted at him, giving a glance over her shoulder to make sure the guy in question didn’t hear -- but neither Ren nor Akechi seemed to have noticed at all, thank God. Though Ren might’ve, and just not shown it. He had the best poker face of anyone Ann ever met.

“Ow!” Ryuji scowled back at her, but she didn’t hit him that hard so it got dropped fast. “Seriously, though!” he said, leaning back in, voice still not  _ quiet _ -quiet but at least lower than before, “he was like, totally insulting us to our faces, right? All that stuff about not expecting Ren to hang out with people like us, or whatever.”

“It’s more than that, though!” Mona burst out, tail thrashing wildly. His paws scrabbled against Ann’s arms as he drew himself up to look Ryuji a little closer; she tried to adjust her grip but for once he barely seemed to be paying attention to her. “I meant what I said! He’s suspicious!”

Ann rolled her eyes, but before she could say anything Ryuji was already jumping on the idiot bandwagon. “You think?”

“Mm-hm!” Mona was using the same voice he used in the Metaverse sometimes, when he was being all bossy because he knew best (or at least he thought he did). “He made this comment about Ren being a joker before, and he was asking about the calling cards, and I  _ swear  _ his eyes look just like the ones I saw in Kamoshida’s Palace.”

“That’s just a coincidence,” Ann said. She gave Mona a little jostle, and he fell back down with a yelp. “I mean, Ren  _ does  _ make stupid jokes a lot, and Akechi wasn’t wearing our uniform, so he probably just heard about the cards and asked his friend who went to Shujin.”

“And the eyes?”

Ann pursed her lips. “Well,” she said, a little consideringly, “I mean, it was pretty dark in --” Ren’s warning to be careful about what they said in public flashed through her mind “--in, uh, that place, so….”

Big blue eyes looked up at her, wounded and not trying to hide it. “Are you saying you don’t believe me, Lady Ann?”

“Morgana,” Yusuke said from behind her; she twisted a little so Mona could see Yusuke’s face too. He looked a little uncomfortable the way he always did whenever he jumped into the conversation, but he didn’t let that stop him. “In my studies, I’ve learnt that even small changes in lighting can drastically affect a subject’s appearance. It’s entirely possible the dimness of… your previous location altered your perception of that figure, leading you to conflate their face with one you already knew.”

Mona still didn’t look convinced. “Still,” he said, dubiously, “I just get a weird feeling from him. I don’t trust him. What if he’s just using Ren, because he knows about the Thieves?”

“Could be,” Ryuji said. His frown was more confused than upset, at least. “How long’s he been going after Ren?”

Mona paused, tail lashing. “...Well,” he said, reluctantly, “they met just after we went into Kamoshida’s Palace the first time, but….”

“But that was before, like, anyone knew about us,” Ann said. “And you can’t recognize us when we’re over there, anyways. Besides, Ren’s super careful about where we talk about that stuff now -- plus our old meeting spot was up on the roof, and Akechi doesn’t go to our school.”

The more she’d talked the deeper Ryuji’s frown had grown. “Yeah, aren’t you just being paranoid, man?” he said, before Mona could argue. “Like, how would he know anything? I mean, he’s a total weirdo, but that doesn’t mean he’s connected to the Metaverse.”

“But…”

Ann reached up and gave Mona a scratch between his ears. Usually he got mad whenever anyone did anything like that, but this time his ears just drooped and he didn’t pull away. “Mona,” Ann said, gently, “I think I know what’s wrong.” He tilted her head up her, still looking a little sad. “You’re worried Ren’s going to get a boyfriend and forget about you, aren’t you?”

“WHAT?!” Mona’s shriek was loud enough that Ann almost dropped him; it felt like the entire station turned as one to stare in their direction. “That’s  _ ridiculous, _ why would I worry about something like that, Lady Ann –”

“Aw, man,” Ryuji said. He pulled away with a sigh, before reaching up to fold his hands behind his head. “That’s totally it, isn’t it? Jeez, Mona, you could’ve just said –”

“That is  _ not  _ it at all!” He was sputtering and squirming again in Ann’s arms, ignoring all her warnings about how she was about to  _ drop him, honestly, Mona – _ “I’ve got a legitimate worry regarding the sanctity of the Thieves! Just because I don’t have proof yet doesn’t mean I’m wrong! I mean, what if he’s just been using Ren the whole time?!”

Ann’s lips pursed. “Well,” she said, readjusting her hold so he wouldn’t drop, “I really doubt it, but even if he was, it’s not like we can go tell Ren to stop hanging out with him. Like, if we’re wrong and he has no connection, then we just ruined things with this guy Ren obviously likes.”

“But what if we’re  _ right?” _

She kind of didn’t want to think about that. Yusuke was too new to read Ren properly, and Ryuji and Mona were both a little too self-centered, but Ann had seen the way the corners of Ren’s eyes crinkled when Akechi had come up to them. Akechi Goro, who or whatever he was, made Ren happy. “Then we’ll deal with it  _ after  _ we make sure,” she said, more decisively than she actually felt. “But for now we have to let Ren do what he wants, okay?”

Morgana made some grumbling noise Ann couldn’t quite make out, but settled back into her arms. Ryuji gave a half-shrug in agreement, and in the back Yusuke still looked a little bit too unsure of himself to say anything. Poor guy. Ann’d have to make sure to be doubly welcoming to him in the future.

She glanced over her shoulder one last time, but both her leader and his friend were long gone, lost to the crushing crowd. It made her a little nervous, but she faced forwards anyways. Ren was a big boy, he could take care of himself. Besides, Akechi had seemed harmless. The worst that would happen was he’d shoot Ren down.

And yet… there was a part of her that couldn’t stop thinking about how insistent Mona had been about him being the guy that he’d seen in Kamoshida’s Palace. And if Mona was right…. Ann’s heart twisted, but she set her shoulders regardless. She’d be there for Ren, in that case. She’d help him the way he was always helping her.

Still, though. She really, really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

_ Don’t break his heart,  _ she thought.  _ Got it, Akechi Goro? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eyo! this is smth i've been thinking of doing for a long time, esp bc i realized p fast that perhaps even friends is basically exclusively from goro's pov, which means there are several scenes he'll literally never see (such as the one above). this will be updated much more sporadically than the main content, but i hope you can still enjoy it!
> 
> additionally, pef has gotten some really nice fanart! i'll be going back to add it to the relevant chapter notes soon, but for now: please look at [this wonderful comic ](https://thematchalight.tumblr.com/post/180453522623/from-perhaps-even-friends-by-hirokiyuu-happy) my friend apple drew for my birthday!
> 
> as always, follow me on @yuunamakis on twitter for writing tweets (i'm doing a ficlet giveaway rn if you're interested!) or on @hirokiyuus to see me shout about whichever mxtx novel just updated!


	2. peef slut web md

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fate, left to chance. Akechi Goro has a pillow fight. [april fools, post chapter 8]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> moved from the main fic over here! a silly thing i wrote as a joke wwww
> 
> all my love to almo for the beta! <3

“Why do you think I should be dead?” he said. His voice remained steady.

A tilt of the head, barely visible in its minuteness. “Why wouldn’t you be? You talk to me every day. You’re the closest thing I have to a friend. I’m going to kill you.”

His fingers twitched into a fist, before smoothing back out. “What do you mean by that?”

A moment of silence hung between them, and then the figure before him gestured to follow. “Come.” And then, in Mona’s normal voice: “And then, the Shadow lifts off the ground and floats out of the room, fast. What do you do?”

“I follow,” Goro said, already reaching for his dice pouch. “What do I roll for that?”

“Lemme think,” Mona said, as he leaned back over the table and pulled the Shadow Princess’s little figure off the board. “Uh, it’s running and stuff, and you’ll have to climb so… athletics.”

“Not acrobatics? I’ve got more points in that.”

“Nah, it’s more keeping up with her, not like, fancy footwork.”

“Fine.”

Goro rolled. Four pairs of eyes watched the dice rattle across the table, and then hit Ren’s glass before coming to a stop. “Ha!” Mona crowed, as Goro clucked his tongue. “Nat one. Okay, you take two steps and then fall really hard and bite your tongue for one point of damage --”

“Hold it!” Futaba thrust a finger out, straightening up from where she’d been tucked against Goro’s side. “That was cocked! He gets a reroll!”

Mona frowned, and then frowned a little deeper when Ren pointedly nudged his side, but sighed in defeat. “ _ Fine.”  _ Goro reached for his dice and threw it again, and this time it was his turn to crow triumphantly when he saw where it landed. “Seriously?!”

“The dice don’t lie,” Goro said, smiling sweetly as Futaba muffled her cackles against his shoulder. “I think a natural twenty means I can follow the Princess wherever she might end up going, hm?”

“Who’s the DM here?” Mona said, and then quieter, “And who even calls it a  _ natural twenty _ , just say ‘nat’ like the rest of us, using long words doesn’t make you sound smarter….”

Ren gave him another gentle nudge, and he sat up straighter. “Right, anyways, I guess you got a nat twenty, so….” He cleared his throat, and shifted into his best DM voice. “You start running, and by the time you get out the door she’s already nearly out of sight -- but you keep up. She leads you all through the Palace, too fast for you to really take in your surroundings, but you keep pace.”

“Do I notice anything about where I’m going?”

“I just said --”

“Really? Even with a  _ natural twenty _ ?”

Mona narrowed his eyes. “Don’t mess with your DM, jerk. But fine. It’s too fast for you to really see anything, but while you’re going you realize the ground is starting to slope up.”

Goro nodded, scribbling down a quick note. “Anyways, so. You follow her through the pyramid. She stop in this room, and uh… Actually, roll to see if you can stop or if you fall over.”

“Natural twenty, Mona!”

“I already gave you the slope, okay?”

Goro rolled his eyes but acquiesced. “Ouch,” Futaba says, seeing the two. “Any pluses?”

“Uh, dex. Flat dex, no bonuses.”

“Four, then.”

“Alright. So you run in the room, but you’re too fast to stop. You manage not to like, crash into her, but you hit the wall really hard instead.”

“Any harm?”

“Nah, but you look like an idiot.” Goro gave Mona his flattest look; Mona grinned back. 

“I don’t think the Princess is paying too much attention to how you look,” Ren said.

“Fair point.”

“He’s right, she isn’t,” Mona said. “She’s not even looking at you, actually. She’s looking at the wall behind you. When you stop, she points a finger at it, and says, look.”

“Alright. I look up.”

“Okay. There’s this mural there. Uh, the Princess is on one side of it, in a throne, and on the other side is these three guys in suits. They’ve all got owl heads, and one’s got a thing of papers in its hands.” Goro scribbled frantically. “And as you’re looking at it, there’s this voice.” Mona cleared his throat, and then dropped his voice as deep as he could get it. “‘I should never have had Momoka. She was always such a bother.’ It seems you’ve caused your mother a great deal of trouble, Momoka-chan. She must have had some kind of maternity neurosis.”

“Oh fuck,” Futaba said. “Wait, is this implying what I think it is?”

“And then the princess says, do you see now? She’s looking at you again.”

“I… Mitsuo doesn’t look at her.”

“Oh no,” Futaba whispered. “Ohhhh no.” 

“Okay.” Mona nodded. “And then the princess says, I killed her.” (“ _ I knew it, oh fuck!”) _ “I killed my own mother. And then she just… stands there. What do you do?”

“Fuck,” Futaba whispered again, pushing against Goro’s side. “Oh fuck, don’t tell me --”

“Well,” Goro said, “I don’t think Mitsuo can look at her. I think he’s just staring up at the mural. He doesn’t know what to do. His hands are shaking.” Futaba punched him in the side. “Ow, fuck -- don’t hit me!”

“Tell her the goddamn truth!”

“Excuse me, have you  _ met  _ Mitsuo?”

Futaba pulled back her fist. “Futaba,” Ren said. She lowered it, but gave Goro a fierce glower.

“This is all I am,” Mona said, in the Princess’s voice. “I will kill you too, Itohara Mitsuo. Who could look at me and say I deserve anything less than death?”

“FUCK!” Futaba screeched in Goro’s ear.

“So what do you do?”

“I….” Goro frowned down at the board. “I think…. I think Mitsuo doesn’t say anything.” Another pause. “Actually, I don’t think he even looks at her. I think he just stands up and leaves.”

Mona’s eyebrows rose. “The entire Palace?”

“Yeah. I think he gets up, and leaves, and just… goes home. He doesn’t look at anyone, or do anything, or stop back at the cafe. He just goes back home. And then he turns on the shower, and sits under the water, and just dissociates for a while.”

“Does he do anything else before he goes to sleep?”

“No. Actually, I don’t think he even gets in bed. He just sits there until he passes out. He’s still in his uniform, by the way. He probably had just enough presence of mind to drop his phone with his keys by the door, but that’s it.”

“Okay.” Mona scribbled something down. “Okay, and since he’s passed out, that counts as going to sleep for the night, which means….” He gave his thighs a little drumroll. “That’s all for this session!”

“Seriously?” Futaba said, sitting up straighter.

“Yeah. There’s timeline stuff planned, so if he left the Palace and didn’t go back in, then….”

“Augh!” She flopped back against the couch, punching a fist in the air. “What the  _ hell! _ ”

“Yeah,” Mona said. “Actually, I’m pretty surprised. I thought for sure Mitsuo was gonna make it all the way to the Treasure tonight.”

“After you dropped that bomb on him? Absolutely not.” Goro smiled sweetly. “You realize this entire time he’s assumed that Momoka actually did something bad, right? He let himself get close because he thought that they might both be fuck-ups, and now that he’s realized that actually, the reason she’s so fucked up is because of  _ him? _ He’s absolutely not equipped to deal with that.”

“Fuck, Goro!” Futaba said, giving him another shove. “What the hell! Fuck!”

“Ow, Futaba!” He fell back against the couch and started to laugh. “I’m just playing the character -- ow, quit it! Stop hitting me!”

“What the fuck! Why is your boy so sad all the time!!”

“It just turned out like that! It’s interesting!”

“It’s  _ sad,  _ you asshole! I’m sad now!”

“Don’t kill him, Futaba,” Ren said, from where he was helping Mona to put away the last of the game board. “We still need Mitsuo for next time.”

Futaba gave Goro one last righteous punch before pulling back. “Fuck, fine! Just don’t let him be sad next time, you asshole.”

“Tell that to Mona.”

She narrowed her eyes at Goro, but swung around to jab a finger in Mona’s direction. “Don’t let him be sad!”

“Adversity builds character!” And then, seeing Futaba’s eyes narrow: “The sad thing is a collaborative effort!”

She glared at him a moment more, before pointing cross-armed at the two of them. “I will accept this for now,” she said, magnanimously, “but if he doesn’t get to feel at least  _ one  _ positive emotion next time, I  _ will  _ revolt!”

“No promises,” Goro said. Futaba grabbed the cushion at her side and whacked him across the head. “Hey --  _ Futaba -- _ ”

“I ask you for  _ one thing --” _

“I have to _ play the character _ \--”

“And make me  _ sad  _ \--”

“Hey --  _ Ow  _ \-- Okay, that’s it --”

A shriek; the whack he’d given her with a cushion of his own had sent her glasses flying. “Oh, Futaba, are you --” His pillow lowered as he frowned at her with genuine concern, and that was all the weakness she needed to smack him once more. “Oh, fuck you --”

“All’s fair, Goro!”

“This is neither love nor war --”

“That’s what you think!”

“Should we stop them?” Mona said, tucking the last of his dice away as he watched Goro and Futaba furiously swing the cushions at each other.

“It’s fine,” Ren said, folding up the board. “If they break the pillows, we’ll just make them clean it up.”

“Uh, I’m more worried they’ll break like, a bone.”

Ren looked at them, watching as Futaba gave Goro a particularly hard  _ thwack  _ that made him buckle forward nearly off the couch. “It’ll be fine,” he said. “I think she’s going easy on him, actually.”

Mona blinked. “...Really?”

“Yeah.”

“...Huh.”

“Anyways,” Ren said, straightening up. “I’ll start dinner?”

Another scream. Mona stood up and scurried behind Ren, leaving the furious battle behind him. “I’ll help!”

“Thanks, Mona.”

“Yeah --” (“ _ Fuck you!”) _ “--anytime, Ren.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this as an april fool's joke wwww originally i was planning to just axe it after a few days but there was a demand for it to stay up so i moved it over here instead!! i hope you enjoyed my silly dnd ramblings
> 
> the rest of the notes are copypasted from the original, so if you've already read them there's nothing new!
> 
> anyways some notes  
> -ive genuinely considered writing a dnd au before. this was just my best opportunity  
> -ch title is. a long story. shoutout to kolo, the only person who contributed to it and actually reads the fic  
> -itohara mitsuo is the name of my own dnd chara's twin brother LGKHDLGKH kanji for first name is 光男 which. feels like smth akechi would name his character HGKLDGHLKDH momoka is a reference to something but if u manage to get it ill be v impressed  
> -no one asked but this game probably runs on a dual system where they use dnd mechanics for inside palaces and smth else outside. it's mona's homebrew he's been working on for Ever  
> -human middle schooler mona!!!! human middle schooler mona!!!!!!!!  
> -this has literally no impact on actual main plot/story. please dont ask me if smth is foreshadowing bc It's Not. i wrote this in a few hours the day before it went up.
> 
> as usual find me on @yuunamakis for writin and @hirokiyuus if u wanna see me be sad abt my /own/ dnd character!!


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